Simmonds' hat trick, Mason's glove drop Rangers to force Game 7

Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds, second from right, celebrates his hat trick with teammates during the second period in Game 6 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Philadelphia Flyers' Steve Mason, center, makes a save with Andrew MacDonald, left, and Mark Streit, right, of Switzerland, during the second period in Game 6 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

PHILADELPHIA — For the first five minutes and change Tuesday night, the Flyers adopted their common pressure pose at home — they were ornery, aggressive and shaky all at the same time.

Before long, and long before Steve Mason’s superb defenses were penetrated, the chaos suddenly came to an end. What replaced it was the finest full game the Flyers have played in weeks.

Led by Wayne Simmonds, whose hat trick was only part of his outstanding performance, the Flyers battered the Rangers 5-2 at Wells Fargo Center, tying the first-round playoff series at three games apiece.

By far, it was the most one-sided game of the series.

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By far, it was the most complete game the Flyers had produced in a long time.

And just in time.

“Obviously, it was do-or-die,” Simmonds said. “We win or we go home. I think everybody in our dressing room did a good job getting prepared for the game. You know, we’re not ready to go home yet. We want to move on to the second round. I thought we played a good game tonight. We just have to carry over the momentum to tomorrow night.”

As seemingly ordained from Day 1 of the postseason, and really back to a regular season in which the teams split their four meetings, the Flyers and Rangers will now meet in a won-or-done Game 7 Wednesday night (7 p.m.) at Madison Square Garden.

Amazingly, this was the 12th straight time, and second in this series, that the Rangers have lost after taking a lead in a playoff series. But before mulling that over, the Flyers probably don’t want to revel in any kind of related hockey numerology.

For the Flyers have won once in their last 11 visits to the MSG playland.

And all-time, the Rangers are 5-0 in Game 7s at the Garden.

All of that will mean nothing if the Flyers come out and put on a semblance of the kind of show they gave over the last 55 minutes Tuesday night.

“We have to put this behind us right away,” Claude Giroux said. “Obviously we want to keep feeling good about how we played tonight, but we have a lot of things to work on, because in New York, they’re a good team. In Madison Square Garden, they find a way to play a little bit better in front of their fans, so for us, we have to have the same attitude there.”

Another beginning similar to the first five minutes in Game 6 might produce different results away from home for the Flyers, too. But you get the idea they wouldn’t mind coming up with a similar start in the pending finale.

“I don’t think we were over-amped at all,” Simmonds said about the first five minutes Tuesday night. “We knew the situation and I think we’ve got to get pumped up for games like this. I think we were maybe a little bit over-aggressive, but it played out well for us. We continued our aggressiveness and we took it with us for the rest of the game.”

The reason it didn’t blow up in their faces was goalie Steve Mason. He turned aside several sharp Rangers shots in those opening minutes while his teammates consistently couldn’t clear the zone and repeatedly gave the puck away. The first period would end with nine Flyers giveaways officially tallied.

Not that it’s always a bad thing.

“It’s always important to feel the puck early,” Mason said. “If you’re getting some big saves early on it can bode well for the rest of the game.”

What changed things for good was Simmonds. He scored his first goal of the night at 7:08 of the first, and the Flyers’ shakes were gone for good. Then just 1:32 into the second period, Brayden Schenn stripped dominating defender Dan Girardi of the puck at the Rangers’ blue line. Schenn broke in 2-on-1 with Simmonds and went to take a shot, but the puck rolled off his stick.

Simmonds promptly blasted it past Henrik Lundqvist for a 2-0 lead.

All the while, Mason was a saving machine. And the Flyers, as usual giving the other guys plenty of power play opportunities, fed off Mason’s energy and turned up the killing jets.

Before night’s end, the Rangers’ streak of failed power plays would reach 20 in this series.

Off one dead Rangers power play, latest Flyers newcomer Erik Gustafsson came flying out of the penalty box and broke in cleanly on Lundqvist and beat the world’s best goalie right through the legs at 14:17.

“That was a huge goal for us,” Mason said. “It’s something that you need to capitalize on those chances and that’s exactly what Gus did.”

Just 62 seconds later, on a Flyers’ power play, Jake Voracek streaked across the slot with a Claude Giroux pass and fired an angle pass that was perfectly teed up for crease dweller Simmonds. His terrific tip brought on a shower of several hundred hats from a delirious crowd and gave the Flyers a 4-0 lead.

“I thought we did a good job of avoiding their shot-blockers,” Simmonds said. “We had layered screens and we kept the pressure up. We had second chances and third chances and fourth chances ... we just kept on going.”

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault decided to rest Lundqvist after two periods, essentially leaving it to the other goalie to nail the result down.

Mason did just that, winning raves for one particular glove save on Benoit Pouliot. Mason then allowed a goal to Carl Hagelin with 6:34 left, but the decision was already earned.

“It was impressive to see Mase play the way he played tonight,” Giroux said of Mason, who made 34 saves. “He’s been doing it all year.”

Vigneault pulled backup goalie Cam Talbot shortly after that, which only served to give Giroux his second goal of the series. And the Rangers would get a last-minute goal by Mats Zuccarello.

The crowd didn’t seem to care. They just kept chanting Mason’s name.

“When you’ve got 20,000 people chanting your name, those kind of moments don’t happen too often,” Mason said. “Those are the type of moments that when you’re done playing, you can look back on them and say they were pretty special.”